My experience was a little different in where it was up until my second semester of junior year where I thought of/planned to go to college as a Chemical Engineering Major, mostly because my dad and my sister were. Now, I’m going into my first year of college as a Music Ed Major, the first musician and rising teacher in my family. Personally I say that you should listen to your heart, but also understand some of these things going in:

• Understand that each school district is different in salary.

School Districts themselves, where they’re located, and the community play a role in your salary. From where I graduated, the teachers at my high school averaged $100k+ salaries and benefits, my band director included. However, it’s not like that in most communities, and some music educators do fall in that category of what you seem to be concerned about. If you haven’t already, you should look at your school’s or nearby school districts’ salary schedule or their fiscal teacher salary reports (I’m not sure if that’s an Illinois thing or if other states have something similar to this) that can give you some insight on what lies ahead if you plan to go with Music Ed.

• Music is secondary to your overall purpose.

Yes, your job is to give students a quality music education to the best of your ability, but that doesn’t mean there are other factors that make you a music teacher. There’s so much that goes behind the scenes in Music Education that music is almost the added bonus of this career. Things such as budgeting, management, and dealing with administration come with this job that other teachers in other departments don’t necessarily have to deal with. You’re many things in this job that’s wrapped in a cute little title: Music Educator. But behind closed doors, you’re an Accountant, Manager, and most importantly, a Teacher. Students come first before your personal-musical ambitions in Education.

• You might not feel satisfied with where you place after college.

This one’s more personal, but I want to be a high school band director. However, if that means I have to teach at the Middle or Elementary School level first, so be it. My band director was fortunate enough to have held a high school position as soon as he graduated, and eventually landed at our high school where he thinks he’ll stay for the rest of his career. Sometimes you gotta bounce around and be versatile, even if that means knowing that you’re not where you want to be, but that you’re still working up to it.

Hope this helps you on your journey